Browser wars? Not so much ...

[BoBo]

... if we trust [THIS] map.

Therefore I'm looking for one of our proud developers who is willing to (trans)script a 'Native Messaging Host'-module with AHK (?) like fellow Sean Griffin, an AU3 aficionado, has done for the AutoIT-community in 2013.
NMH - code examples are available (C++/Python/Delph/node.js/...). So well, I guess it's ~ 3hrs coding ...??!
The concept isn't really rocket science ...

AHK <> Native Messaging Host (NMH) <> Chrome Extension <> Chrome

just-me has already translated Sean's function library taken from [here] (I guess there are a few left in one of the postings). I've tested them successfully with the latest Chrome release and Sean's AU3 NMH.
As its output could need a tiny tweak, but it's source code isn't available (compiled AU3) it would be perfect to have an "own" maintainable AHK NMH - eg. to give the world an AHK x-mas present

Anyone interested connecting AHK with Chrome (more reliable)??

PS. in the end, it might connect with FireFox as well (keyword: extension)?!
PPS. Joe Glines has linked to this article [Google will lock down Chrome on Windows] that made this thread a MUST for Chrome users right before 2018

[...] Blocking such programs is the stick, which Google will be using to force developers to use the far more benign Chrome extensions and Native Messaging to work with Chrome. The carrot is, "Fewer crashes means more happy users." [...]

[derz00]

Yes sir! I really got excited when you mentioned firefox! But I'm not a developer... :(

Ps. this is yet another reason that there should be a "General AHK discussion" forum.

Edit: I just looked at that map. No, I'm not sure if I trust it. :P

[elmo]

Is the Selenium webdriver something to be considered for this type of initiative ?

Joe Glines covered in one of his webinars at http://the-automator.com/autohotkey-web ... -scraping/

[nnnik]

elmo it's different. With Native Messaging Host you can connect to an existing Chrome Window.

[derz00]

Would this also mean there would be a way to connect to Brave (if it's based off the chromium engine) or does there need to be an extension in the browser? (Brave only has a few select extensions built in)

[BoBo]

Yes sir! I really got excited when you mentioned firefox! But I'm not a developer...

[...]

Edit: I just looked at that map. No, I'm not sure if I trust it.

Because the town you live in isn't in Cuba !?!
Well, you see the core market for Apple devices must be in Switzerland

[BoBo]

elmo it's different. With Native Messaging Host you can connect to an existing Chrome Window.

You've seen that I've provided a Python NMH code at the German thread after your request?

[derz00]

Yes sir! I really got excited when you mentioned firefox! But I'm not a developer...

Ps. this is yet another reason that there should be a "General AHK discussion" forum.

Edit: I just looked at that map. No, I'm not sure if I trust it.

Because the town you live in isn't in Cuba !?!
Well, you see the core market for Apple devices must be in Switzerland

BoBo you like usual make me laugh

Yes Swiss take only quality hardware. I have much swiss in my far-back ancestry.

[BoBo]

BoBo you like usual make me laugh

Hell, haven't thought that my every once in a while provided noob-ish script snippets have that kind of effect

[elmo]

So does the creation of this thread mean that there is currently no method to work directly with active Chrome and/or Firefox web pages ?

[BoBo]

So does the creation of this thread mean that there is currently no method to work directly with active Chrome and/or Firefox web pages ?

... I've tested them successfully with the latest Chrome release and Sean's AU3 NMH. ...

[BoBo]

[Porting a Google Chrome extension]

Extensions developed with WebExtension APIs are designed for cross-browser compatibility: to a large extent, the technology is directly code-compatible with the extension API supported by Google Chrome and Opera. Extensions written for these browsers will, in most cases, run in Firefox with just a few changes. Almost all of the extension APIs are supported using callback functions under the chrome namespace, the same as Chrome. The only APIs which are not supported in the chrome namespace are those which are intentionally incompatible with Chrome. In those few cases, the API documentation page will explicitly state that it's only supported in the browser namespace. The process of porting an extension from Chrome or Opera is like this [...] "

[elmo]

Bobo,

My interpretation of your inititial post is that there is currently no AHK specific method / code / library / process to interact with live Chrome and Firefox pages. It "seemed" like you were relating some success with "Sean's AU3 (AutoIT 3) NMH (Native Host Messaging)" and suggesting that unspecified luminaries could use that blueprint to give the AHK community a Christmas present. As a beneficiary of smart people's contributions to the AHK forum that would be cool indeed.

May I trouble you for clarification as to whether you are suggesting that we integrate Sean's AU3 NMH into our work - or - referring to some other AHK native capability; existing or proposed.

Apologies for ignorance on the subject and/or misunderstanding your posts, and thank you in advance for your time and attention.

[BoBo]

Hi elmo,
first I've to say that my English isn't that good to discuss technical aspects in detail without creating a nice gap for misinterpretation. Gotcha!
OK, let's have a(nother) try ...

My interpretation of your inititial post is that there is currently no AHK specific method / code / library / process to interact with live Chrome and Firefox pages.

Well, as said, once our pal just-me has translated an AutoIT (AU3) library to AHK, I've had some successful tests to access a live Chrome session (trigger elements of local/online webpages). So there is an already existing AHK library available [here]

It "seemed" like you were relating some success with "Sean's AU3 (AutoIT 3) NMH (Native Host Messaging)" and suggesting that unspecified luminaries could use that blueprint to give the AHK community a Christmas present. As a beneficiary of smart people's contributions to the AHK forum that would be cool indeed.

Yep. The reason for that request was bc the used Chrome extension (open code) and the NMH (compiled code) are still the ones that Sean Griffin has released (in 2013!). I'd be more then happy if the AHK community would get its 'own/native' AHK NMH.

May I trouble you for clarification as to whether you are suggesting that we integrate Sean's AU3 NMH into our work - or - referring to some other AHK native capability; existing or proposed.

Well, you can still use Sean's (AU3) NMH. But my guessing was - if an NMH can be written with AutoIT (there are samples in other coding languages available as well) there's a chance that the same can be written with AHK!? So, once there is an existing AHK NMH we (the community) would be able to fix/tweak/maintain it if it gets broken ...

Apologies for ignorance on the subject and/or misunderstanding your posts, and thank you in advance for your time and attention.

Thanks for trying to get the idea behind my meandering statements

PS. for firefox there was also something available that would have wet your pants ...
http://www.thorsten-willert.de/index.ph ... /ff/ff-au3 (died with FF57)
http://english.documentation.ff-au3.tho ... illert.de/